jem -- I thought about some of the typical older home 'faults' you detail when we built new in 2001. We have a 10/12 roof to shed snow -- and to provide a 'second story' for some future owner who wants to add some dormers -- yet the gutters are only nine feet above the ground. (Building such an 'attic' would seem a waste, but our lot is zoned for a 6,000 sq ft home, while we wanted half of that and one story. The taller profile fits better in our neighborhood.) Our north-facing 42" entry door is wood, with sidelights and no storm door, yet it looks like new because it's protected by a roofed six foot deep stoop, with arched openings front and east. We are also a single step above ground level at every entry point. Single story is nice, but you have to get *into* the house easily too. Having endured aluminum-frame windows, I appreciate tight, efficient doors and windows. Casements lock at two points; French doors lock at three. I have to look out to know if a car is driving up to the house; can't hear it. A mistake I made was having a row of French doors on the south with inadequate overhang. I must close the doors if there's any wind with a rain. I bet you could replace your picture windows with same size more efficient ones without alterations. The new glass and frames are *tight*. You would have less re-structuring and painting to do, and wouldn't throw off the exterior symmetry.

You know what drives me up the wall? Listening to people eat. Smacking food, slurping food, crunching chips. Especially when they put the potato chip in their mouth and then crunch down on the before closing their mouth. WHYYYY??? People do that with popcorn too. Put the chip/popcorn/noisy food in your mouth, close your mouth, then crunch. It muffles the noise and makes me not want to bop you on the head as much.... I've actually put my lunch away at work several times, when some people are in there eating their food and sounding like pigs. Also, there is this guy helping us out in the store. He's okay, but holy smokes does his breath smell! He was talking to me yesterday and I tried to back away so I could inhale but he moved closer and I thought I was going to die. I don't know the last time he brushed his teeth, he's a smoker and the breath..... OMG.... It's why I chew gum often: makes the smell of my coffee and food go away. Or maybe it adds to the smell. Nobody has ever said... lol Could be why people back off when I talk. Maybe I'm on to something here. ;)

I have lived here since autumn, 1991: Loving: I just bought this kitchen a new scratch and dent range late last spring - the installers fixed an electrical issue I didn't even know came with the original range but that one had been installed in 1969 in ways that got taken off of code by somewhere in the 1980's. The range is "basic", but it has a timer, and two broil settings, and an oven window. I'm so up in the world! When I moved here, one of the best selling features was that the side yard was very private. It still is, and I still like that feature. (I'd moved here from the Anxiety Condo from Hell, with the putative coke dealer living in the unit above me. I didn't dare grow anything in the garden plot outside that window - he'd have trashed it.) Anyhow, here I love this side yard, and the porch with the overhang. And the ability to have happy small gatherings back here. I love the front stone walkway and the back flagstone area my one-time housemate put in. The stones were free from a New England wall whose owner wanted them gone, and nearly all the flagstones were found in weird spots on this property left by previous owners. (For some reason, the walkway when I moved in was made of these flagstones, without steps, on a slope. Any time it rained, you'd risk your life walking on them. Out back we could lay them flat.) I only had to buy a few more to complete the look. My basement doesn't leak. We had some leaks when we first moved in, and my housemate and his boyfriend of that time helped dig a trench and put in the proper tubing to divert the water. I never had another leak from that direction. (We also planted wild pachysandra we'd found ditched in a wooded area nearby. It probably helped erosion issues.) In another direction, a slow ooze early on was something I was able to resolve by using a certain sealant paint - it never leaked again. No, I don't remember what it was. Oak floors on the main level. Not Loving: The Kitchen from a TV Dinner Nightmare. (No prep space, insufficient outlets, only one useful upper for the entire room -- 12 inch wide uppers are just plain useless). And the three doors that bang into one another during the times I didn't live alone here - the "half" bath, basement door, and back door. A good EnergyStar fridge won't fit in here. The "half bath" being right off the kitchen, and it being about 2.5 feet by 4 feet. Long steep driveway, with the steepest part inserted at the 90 degree turn that someone thought would give me a useful side-entry garage. However, when you come down the road from the north, you only ever see the garage, so I still don't get the issues about "snout" garages... (When you come from the south, you, and fortunately the Google Maps Road View camera, don't see the house at all...) Meanwhile that driveway angle is real challenging in winter. Laundry in the basement. It was really a pita both times I broke various leg/ankle bones. Getting stuff from the car to the kitchen. Actually, I don't use the garage for the car, not enough room, too many projects. And if I did, I'd have to take the bags up a flight of stairs, with the last step being a tall killer step. I walk the stuff around the house and up a hill... I'm used to it, but not in winter. (I have taken things in through the basement level den, but there's still that flight of stairs.)

Thank you @Jon Alan Unfortunately, I cannot widen that side of the house as we are almost at max building capacity. It's tricky because it's a narrow lot and it's not total new construction - we're working with existing garage - so I cannot get the front door/center window to be actually symetrically centered between each side of the house. The left is more narrow..